Katya Komarova

Recently, I sat down to interview the lovely Russian born, Adelaide, Australia based Katya Komarova to talk about her designs and her background. We spoke about that birdcage skirt, waste in fashion and her fashion dreams.

At the time that I first approached you, a few years ago, you were predominantly making handbags. Since then you’ve extended into corsetry, belts and the birdcage skirt that we saw during the Adelaide Fashion Festival – that’s got a lot of social media. What’s your next expansion?

I get the clothing is just the complementary to the main fashion which was leather goods always. I am working on an exciting project involving the concept of creating your own handbag – a new customer experience. I have been trying with a vague idea but it hasn’t been officially launched but that will be the idea – creating more and more options for my customer around having your perfect handbag.

So customizing with colours or fabrics or shapes?

Yes and I do a lot of accessories and with my minimal approach to a wardrobe, I think it’s accessories that make it easy for everyone to look different everyday so I think that’s my way of delivering that message of buying less but still being different every day. I continue around new styles for corsets because this has actually been the best-seller. The Birdcage skirt has become an iconic piece.

I was going to say it’s become your signature piece!

Yeah I actually launched a corset with the same sort of cage approach and it has received a lot of positive feedback so hopefully it will get some place in my online store and people will start buying it. They have been preferring my classic corset.

Okay, so you’re hoping that one will take off as much as the skirt did…

Yes, yes.

And I actually had a question about the skirt. Is it one piece of leather or is it several and then sewn? It must be structurally so difficult to make.

Yes, several and then sewn. It is difficult to make and I think it must be the most expensive item in my store and it’s just because of the amount of time that is spent in creating it.

It’s up to one week – a few days because I also hand dye most of the leathers so first it has to be hand-dyed and then all the straps have to be the same length and width etc. The rivets have to be put in a particular order.

The Birdcage skirt with the addition of flowers on this version.

So you make it yourself?

Mostly yes.

So how many hours go into it?

Some days I have to take breaks because of the pain in my fingers because some time if I dye. It takes time for the leather to dry and then I put another coat that keeps the colour and I have to wait again.

How did you get into design?

It was a very long interesting story. Funnily enough, when I was 8 years old I felt like doing something creative and I thought “maybe I should be a designer” and my grandmother bought me a book and it was “how to make your dress” or something like that. I started reading the book and I was like “oh this is so boring, I don’t want to do this!” So I put that book aside and by the age of 18 I got into modelling. It was always my dream. I expressed myself in that field.

In Russia?

Yes and also internationally. And I had a bit of time off from my contract and so I went to Thailand and I was living on an island and one day I randomly met this Thai guy who had his small leather shop and he invited me to look around and to spend some time in the place and see what he was doing and he gave me a piece of leather and was like “you want to make a bracelet for yourself or something” and I was like “ok, whatever”. So I got into it and I was really excited. So by the time I got back to Russia, I cut my mother’s boots and I made a clutch for my girlfriend. She loved it and I was like “ohhh ok” so I got some more leather and decided to make bags.

So how old were you when you decided to do this?

It was in 2010. So by 2011, I had quite a few bags and belts sitting in my place. I started taking pictures and putting it on Facebook and people loved it and started buying it and since I was still working as a model, by the Fashion Week time in 2011 I went to a fitting for one of the show’s I had to do. The designer was actually my friend and asked me “how are you doing? What’s new?” and I was like “I’m actually making bags now!” and he was like “show them to me!” I showed him the pictures and he loved them and was like “why don’t we put them in my runway?” I think he picked 2 or 3 bags. I wasn’t wearing any of those but I was in the runway and I saw girls on the runway on the camera backstage wearing my bags and when I saw it on the screen I was like “oh my God”.

Amazing! Who was the designer?

Bessarion. He’s actually Georgian but he was showcasing in Moscow back then. He’s now back in Georgia and showcasing in Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Georgia. He actually had a runway a few days ago. When I saw my bags on the runway I was like “I want to do it. Professionally”. So I went to Italy and studied handbag design and making in Florence in 2012. I already had my profile as a designer by then and when I was doing my studies I presented my very first full handbag collection at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Russia but it wasn’t a runway it was a presentation so I had a one-day booth. Straight after that I went on a holiday to Australia and met my future husband randomly a few days before I had to go back. It took us like half a year to decide do we want to do it because I had to give up a lot of things. So back then I had a label named “By Mosquito” and so I took sort of that brand here and was trying to understand if it fits the Australian fashion industry and the market. I still had to maintain my Russian clients. It was mostly made to order bags and very unique. So I would usually produce a few and people would buy them. Some people would say “could I have something for work in this colour” and I would sort of suggest some styles and they would be “ok”. So it’s not like I have a store. I actually do still have some customers like that in Russia.

When I hand dye I can do almost any colour so I just listen to what they want.

So I decided to wrap up the brand while still having a few clients because I wanted to have something more suitable for Australia. In 2014, I launched the Katya Komorova label. So that’s pretty much my career as a designer. What it started as and what it is now.

I think I finally got to the point where I am satisfied with the look of my brand but it took me some time to evolve and get to the final image of who I am as a designer. I’m still learning but I guess what my label represents now is what direction

How old are you?

33.

Wow. So you’ve accomplished a lot! By 27 you had your booth at Fashion Week.

I think because I wasn’t jumping from a completely different industry. I was almost 10 years in the fashion industry by then and I knew everybody in the fashion world of Russia.

Do you think that helped you launch?

Absolutely. Yes. And it helped me there and it helps me here and it’s always about… there are so many talented people like even if you go to Etsy there are so many talented people but not everybody gets to push their brand to the next level coming from a hand-craft to something more commercial and I think a big part of it is knowing where to go next, who talk to. You need to spread the word around quickly and to the right people. I don’t necessarily know all the right people. I know their names and I know where to push the door. I have been in the industry. I know these names. I know who is the best [person] for me to contact and discuss with.

Do you find being in Australia is difficult for the international market?

I sell mostly in Australia but I have customers in the Emirates, America, Canada, UK.

And how did they find you?

By surname I can see most of them are Russian. In Australia, some of them are Russian, some of them are Australian. I can see that there are quite different audiences. Worldwide, the Russian customer is very loyal to me. This number is growing. They are not necessarily in Russia but Russians living anywhere in the world. It’s nice for me.

How did you end up with the birdcage skirt in the Adelaide Fashion Festival – by application or did they find you?

I did work in runways at the Adelaide Fashion Festival as a model and I was like this is probably the best event for me to showcase my designs so I started doing some research and understanding if I could get into it. I didn’t know if there were applications or you get invited but I have a close contact who is working in PR and I asked her if she knows anybody to whom she could introduce me so I could discuss and she said “Are you sure you’re ready?” and she said “hmmm… let’s discuss this further and we’ll see”. I was like “I do feel like I’m ready!”. So I was introduced to Adelaide Fashion Festival and I had my meeting with Managing Director, Robin Ingerson and she liked my accessories and she was like “hmmm will I put you into the accessories section… we’ll see”.

It was well before, like half a year before in the beginning of 2016. Then Chris Kontos was announced as the Creative Director and then about a month after that announcement I randomly met him at some event where I was working as a model. I think I also showcased one of my pieces in the Black Dress Runway by Filip with an f, a very famous local DJ and producer who produced the Black Dress Runway show where I showcased one of my looks so it was a black suede dress and there was a handbag. Chris Kontos was there and I went up to him and I said “what do you think of my outfit?” and he said “I think it’s great. Do you think you could do a full collection?”. I said “yes, of course, absolutely!”

So he was like “okay let’s have another meeting with Robyn and discuss if you could be included in the Adelaide Fashion Festival.” So that was it. We had another meeting and then I started preparing for the runway. I finalised all of my sketches including the birdcage skirt and I showed them again and they loved it and that was it. I didn’t know until the last minute that my label would actually be opening the contemporary fashion runway and my cage skirt would be opening that entire section. It was an honour. I was nervous backstage, I was crying. It was unforgettable.

Adelaide is isolated from everywhere so it can be difficult to make it in Adelaide and to get the recognition so it’s really positive. I saw that you had some coverage in the Russian magazines, Marie Claire and Vogue. Did that come about through your contacts from the modelling world – do you send them images and say hey what do you think? Or are stylists finding you on Instagram and asking for your pieces?

So the Russian magazines was more through me being a part of the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, I didn’t do anything. But when I was featured by Vogue and Elle that was actually one of the bloggers, Marina Ingvarsson, who is also a stylist. She used to be a model and we were modelling together in Bangkok and I sent her one of my corsets and she styled it so well that she was photographed everywhere during New York Fashion Week last January and I think we got into every single magazine around the world and it was such a huge push for the corset. The way she styled it and it appeared in Marie Claire and Vogue and some online resources in America and it just became viral and was everywhere on pinterest.

Image of Marina Ingvarsson at New York Fashion Week in the corset – image picked up by Vogue, Elle among others.

That must be really surreal.

It was great.

So that was a friend you used to model with in Thailand?

Yep, we were in the same agency and her husband is a photographer. They moved to New York. She is a stylist now and they worked together and she gets invited to all the Fashion Weeks.

To actually get photographed and stand out during Fashion Week is impressive!

Yeah, because there are so many. I think she was attending a Michael Kors show in that look that was picked up. I feel very proud.

Did you get goosebumps when you first saw it?

I think I was screaming!

Where do you find your inspiration?

Everywhere. I think my main inspiration comes from women. I like watching pictures from street style from bloggers, women on streets and see if women are struggling with something to achieve the look that they want or if there is some very interesting idea of styling something and that can evolve and become a new design for me – either a struggle or a nice interesting way of wearing something and that becomes a starting point for me.

However, when I work on the entire collection I like to find a theme. For example for my last collection, I knew I was going to Russia and I said “ok. I need to find a theme related to Russia” and I was looking at facts of my year of birth which was 1984 and I found the fact that the game Tetris was actually launched in Russian in 1984. I was like well that’s an interesting fact to begin with and since the older shapes that fall in the game remind me about my bags. I came with that idea to one of my buyers in Sydney and I said “I’m working on a new collection and I’m starting with Tetris. What do you think about it?” He was like “I don’t know it will be very difficult to take this idea further. I always looked at your bags and thought they make me think of the Mindcraft game.”

I had never played the Mindcraft game but I looked at some screen shots and I loved the colours and I was like “oh maybe this will work” so I started creating a moodboard and it was taking shape nicely. This has become a theme for my new collection and even I did this Mindcraft faces and it’s getting very popular. I’ve sold all of my runway pieces and I am working on new stock at the moment. It was well received and I am very thankful to my buyer in Sydney who pushed me to do so. For example they have some pink characters in the game, some green ones; so I brought these colours into accessories. It’s not like a completely made it so toyish, so kids’ stuff. I just took the bits that inspired me most from that topic and worked around it. So this is how it usually happens when I search for what would inspire me. When it’s a separate item, I see a picture but when it’s a whole collection everything has to be united under the one umbrella.

The Mindcraft inspired bags in the latest runway show at the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Russia S/S 2018

MOSCOW, RUSSIA – OCTOBER 24: A model walks the runway at the Katya Komarova (Australia) fashion show during day four of Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Russia S/S 2018 at Manege on October 24, 2017 in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Oleg Nikishin/Artefact)

Proof that you don’t need 100 different pieces to put together a collection for Fashion Week. This outfit on the runway at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Russia S/S 2018 – Day Four

Do you work to a season?

I try not to but I do have to put a label on it if it’s Summer or if it’s Winter. It’s very distracting because as I said the brand is sold internationally. I’d rather not but since I am presenting every second collection at Fashion Weeks, I am putting a label on Spring/Summer and then I release some items later as a Winter collection. But I’d really rather not. I’ve been discussing this with one of the showrooms in Milan “can I do it without seasons?” There is actually a label in Sydney, Kit X, she just puts numbers – so she’s now up to collection number 9. So this brand has collections 8, 9 on their website. So I was like “ah this might work but it’s probably confusing for buyers.” For the end consumer, it’s fine – they just see the new releases.

I guess if sometimes it’s more colourful – people think of Summer. Personally I think we should have more colour in Winter when it’s grey and boring and you need more colour in your life. However, that seems to be Winter everyone thinks of Black, Brown, Grey….

I think it becomes more complicated when I include clothing in my collection. But for the last 2 seasons, it’s been mostly very basic items that you should have in Winter and Summer – t-shirts, bodysuits, blouses, pants – and you’ll have classic colours like Navy Blue or Black and it suits anything.

What keeps you motivated?

There is a very famous phrase by Coco Chanel “I don’t do fashion. I am fashion”. So it’s a very big part of me. No matter what mood, I am in, what happens in my life, if I’m not doing my thing, I don’t feel happy. There are some days when I feel – straight after Adelaide Fashion Festival runway this season, I had a feeling that it was all very bad and it was a complete disaster. I wish I could have done better. And then the next day, I received images and a lot of positive feedback and I realised it was good.

Sometimes there are days when I feel like I am not doing well enough but I get over it the next day and I’m good.

There are days that you don’t have inspiration and you know you have to do something and you can’t. I tried to boost myself with maybe some beautiful magazines or I meet a girlfriend for a cup of coffee and we discuss things that inspire me. I try to boost my emotions to get me back into it. It all happens but I have learned how to get back on the track.

You mentioned having a showroom in Milan earlier. It’s difficult to also find the right one given the financial investment involved in showing…

I think it is better when they express an interest as it means they have buyers they can bring to you. I am just getting into that part of business. I was mostly maintaining all of the relationships with the buyers on my own but working with showrooms you have to jump ahead to the next collection. So I’ve just finished my work on the Summer collection. Showrooms already want to see your next year’s Winter. Forgetting that everyone just showed their Spring/Summer, the showroom wants to see your next collection by the end of this year that will be showcased at the end of March.

I am still learning. I didn’t know that and usually nobody teaches you that. So I am trying to understand is it the right direction for my brand and should I be focusing on producing – I don’t want to overstock – I should maintain all the sales myself and not go into wholesale that way I don’t overproduce – I don’t like wastage so I am still trying to understand if I can grow on my own or do I need the wholesale part of my business. That will require me focusing on speeding up my resources on creating the next collection. I am still trying to make that decision.

If everyone suddenly wants the birdcage skirt and it takes several days to make…

Obviously I am not… I do have some interns that I work with who are already ready to jump on board when I can’t do it myself. I have written procedures in place for when I can’t produce everything on my own so I can bring someone in. I am not producing clothing, this is done by my team. The leather goods are mostly done by me and I am now discussing the possibilities with the laser company here in Adelaide.

There is a laser company here in Adelaide?!

Quite a few actually but I work with one of them. They help me cutting leather with laser. That reduces my time as I used to cut everything myself with a knife and sometimes that results in some mistakes and you destroy the piece of leather. These mistakes almost never happen using laser. This is part of the innovation that I have been introducing to my business and it really helps with reducing time and costs.

Sometimes you need to outsource some of the tasks.

I try to outsource still here in Adelaide. It’s been a great challenge because the manufacturing in Australia is not strong. It’s possible but it takes more time and more money and I am trying to understand if these things are valued by my customers as much as by me. It seems like a lot of people do care about it and they want high quality leather, they want locally produced stuff but a lot of people want quantity over quality.

The biggest problem with suppliers not having a wide range is because there is no manufacturing, no one needs the material as there are so few of us. If there were more manufacturing here, there would be more suppliers.

Mostly here. I have a supplier in Sydney and in Adelaide. Some of the hardware, the rivets I order from Europe. These (pointing to the metal loops in the handles) are from Taiwan. Everything is achievable if you want. It takes you time and therefore increases the price. You have to understand if it is worth it and do people care.

For me it’s not always about the best quality – the hardware is pretty much all fine – it’s the style. The aesthetics I need – “I don’t want that, I want that. Don’t you have that?”

You posted recently on instagram about waste being a design flaw and you spoke about reusing leftover material or trying not to have any left-over material. You also said you’re producing stitch-free bags. How do you do that?

The rivets are screwed in and it just becomes a piece of leather than can be reused.

The bucket bag, Katya’s favourite, is made from a single piece of leather and is stitch-free with rivets only to secure it. That way the bag can be recycled into another use by simply removing the rivets.

So it’s one piece of leather?

Yeah and this… my mother used to make us leather insoles for our shoes because we appreciate high-quality leather in my home and I think I always had problems wearing synthetic shoes so my Mum would make sure she cut it from some old leather jacket and make me good leather insoles. This has always been sitting in my mind… If this is not working, how can I reshape this piece of leather to be wearable? On the other note of less waste and producing waste, while producing something that is still fashionable, I was actually going to write but still haven’t, I was going to write a blog about how I made a full runway with only 7 styles. I had 25 looks. There were different colours but there were only 7 styles of clothing and a few styles of bags, belts and corsets. You don’t have to produce a thousand items to launch a collection, to fill up your wardrobe. It can be just a few good items.

Because a designer produces a huge collection, some of it is not well received and it is sitting somewhere and there is so much waste and then next season it is not trendy any more. So I am just bringing up the question “do we need that much to showcase your collection as a designer? To have this promotional exercise for your customer to see this wow collection without 100 pieces. Is it possible? Yes, it is. I just did it.

Proof that you don’t need 100 different pieces to put together a collection for Fashion Week. This outfit on the runway at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Russia S/S 2018 – Day Four

That was my sort of challenge as a designer – can I do a runway with less pieces and my message to the end consumer can you look very different having a few items? – yes, you can. I think it is a huge problem in the fashion industry. To begin with, the fashion industry is something we can live without. It’s not medicine or science but this is the way that we express ourselves, this is the way that makes us feel happier, sexier, beautiful – a lot of things and we want it to be in our lives. Unfortunately fashion is one of the biggest risks to the environment. I think it is our responsibility as designers to think about it.

That’s the other thing with the designers who get their pieces made in China with really large minimum orders – half of it ends up at the outlet, half of it ends up being destroyed because it never sells at the outlet.

Absolutely, yes. I think this is the complication with your relationship with a wholesaler as sometimes you over-produce something that will not necessarily sell. I am still trying to learn if it is possible to produce as you go and so far it has worked for me.

Produce based on orders?

Sort of. I get my initial orders from my stockists and they sometimes will reorder an item that is working well half way through “oh this is selling well can we have more of it?” If they don’t sell something, I do exchange. If it’s a leather item, I can reuse that piece. I have a very close relationship with the stockists that I work with. It’s a matter of having a quick reaction on seeing the demand and going with that, rather than trying to forecast what will happen. Fashion is such a weird it is very difficult to forecast.

You spoke about the joy you feel when you see people wearing your pieces. Is there a favourite person who has worn your pieces?

Actually I have a friend here in Adelaide, a well-known blogger, Dashbody, a fitness guru and she was brave enough to tell me “Katya, I am crazy about your birdcage skirt” and she was attending an event at the Art Gallery and she was like “can I get the skirt – I need it, I need it.” So I was like “okay”. So she received a black birdcage skirt and the way she put it together with a dress… The birdcage is such a difficult – for people who don’t attend high fashion events to understand how to put it together. I think I can just put it on top of jeans and it will look cool but not everybody thinks that way because I think I am a little bit crazy with fashion – haha!

Dasha (@dashbody) in the birdcage skirt at the Art Gallery of South Australia event.

I was not attending that event but when I saw some images from the event seeing her wearing it, it made my heart melt when I see how sexy she feels in it. How strong and powerful because of the look it gives and something different and very eye-catching. She was wearing high-heels. I felt like I was inside of her.

I put it on at home – usually when I create something, I try it on and because I am a model I look in the mirror and think “will it look good on the runway?”…. So when I saw her wearing it, it’s like I have a little camera sitting in her head, watching everyone’s reactions…. But that was just one, there are many of those. When my customers tag me in their pictures on Instagram, when they just open the parcel, I feel always like I am there with them; I am giving a little bit of myself. I don’t have every single style of the collections for myself – I would usually have like one bag and one t-shirt. Since I am not producing much, it is such a pleasure to see that someone wants what I created. I just feel so happy that somebody wants something that I produced and I am happy to see all of these people – I do want [the pieces] but I do feel happy when I see people wearing it.

Do you have a favourite piece?

Probably this bucket bag – I’ve been experimenting with the way of wearing it so much. If you take off this strap, you can put a handle on it or a full handle on it so it looks different every time you wear it.

Katya’s favourite piece – her bucket bag

The birdcage skirt is definitely my favourite and I have worn it quite a few times. Actually once I had a fashion shoot right on Rundle and it was in the middle of the day, a lot of people crossing this intersection and I was wearing the birdcage skirt, walking with everybody and the photographer was taking pictures. That skirt gives so much power to whoever wears it. I strongly believe that and I did receive that feedback from girls who are wearing it. It’s one of my favourite pieces.

Katya modelling her birdcage skirt in the middle of the city

What was your inspiration for it?

From when I was a young girl, I loved the crenoline skirts – that you put under your skirt and it’s like a cage thing and shapes. You put it under your dress for the shape. I always thought this item represents a woman of an era. I have a great love for this piece. I have never had one because I wasn’t born in the era when women were wearing it but I think it is such a women’s item. It screams woman – it gives the elegance, the power. I love that item. I was just trying to challenge myself – can I make something out of that to be these day’s item.

In terms of future projects, when do you think the design your own bag will launch?

A part of it is already available on the website. So when you go to Mix and Match section, you can pick the colour of the bucket bag for example and then the colour of the strap – I did black and black but you could pick a pink bag with a navy blue strap or without a strap, just with a handle. A part of it is already being introduced on the website under Mix and Match but I want to expand on that idea and create a more user-friendly experience for this. I want the customer to see how the bag changes when you pick the different colours. At the moment you see just a range of colours, some of these are suggested styles and you pick your own colour but you can’t actually see how it looks if you decide to mix and match pink with navy. So I need to invest a bit more time and money into creating this whole experience and hopefully one day to open up a corner in a department store having this – you can make this bag [the bucket bag] pretty quickly and that’s the idea of having the bag made in front of you in a reasonable time and hopefully it will be received well online so I can take it further to the brick and mortar.

So you’re thinking of having a department store concession… When do you hope to do that?

It depends. I need to understand if people want it.

I think it’s a great idea to see something being made. The whole reason I started the blog was because I always like to know the story about how something is made or why someone decided to make something. I like the idea of seeing something come to life in front of you, seeing the workmanship.

Since it is stitch free, there are pre-cut pieces and then to screw all the rivets in is very quick or if all the straps are ready at once – you pick the style, you pick the colour – it’s put together in a few minutes and then you pick the accessories on top, the strap, the handle, some keyring, personalisation with your name and there you have your dream bag. Some people say “I wish it was this colour or that colour” or “this combination, not that combination” and this is actually coming back to the question of wastage because sometimes we produce the things that people don’t want to buy. We think they’ll want to buy but they won’t. I’m asking the question “what do you want and I will do it in front of you.” This whole idea of doing fashion differently – making something that people actually want to buy.

They could then buy a different handle they could then change

Exactly. You don’t need another bag the next season. You have become crazy about this colour yellow – buy a yellow strap to go with the bag you bought last year and it’s freshly updated. Putting some new keyrings and it’s already a different bag – it’s still the same bag but you just style it differently. The quality of the leather – it will last you a very long time.

You use the vegan leathers?

No, it’s not vegan – I get asked this question all the time. It’s not vegan but it’s vegetable tanned. So in comparison to chrome tanning, which involves a lot of chemicals – to prepare the leather to be used in the final product, the piece of the leather has to go through a tanning process. Chrome tanning apart from having a lot of chemicals and if it is produced in developing countries like India, where they don’t have all the good processes in place, it all goes to water. I am not saying that this is not toxic – it’s less toxic.

So it’s cowhide leather? Which is better than fake leather for the environment anyway

Yes. I am coming from a very tough climate country and if you are buying plastic leather it is going to get destroyed in the first Winter. It will wrinkle and you will through it away in the first week of winter. So if you want to wear a bag for many, many years – you buy a good leather and this way you are actually supporting the environment, not destroying the environment.

I don’t eat meat. I am actually pescatarian. I understand that a lot of people do. The topic of not harming animals, we do harm a lot of animals by using plastic. Buying something cheaply doesn’t help the environment. If you’re ready to buy something, buy a good thing. My bags are not crazy expensive. I am trying to put the costs down as much as possible. One of the reasons I am able to keep my prices down is because I am not doing wholesale. When you are doing wholesale, you have to share your profits with them. I am just taking my profit and there are the production costs and my time. When you do wholesale, they take – when you work with department stores – they take 70% on top!

It definitely helps me to have a better relationship with the customer but we’ll see. It’s not necessarily good for growing the brand and the business quickly. I am still trying to understand… but I think if what I am doing is having a good reaction from the end consumer, I will be happy.

What have been your biggest challenges/obstacles?

One of the biggest challenges is having thoughts of thousands of women in my head. How I see some new style or design is not necessarily well received by everyone. Some women will find it difficult to wear it or style. It’s good and bad. If I see that I would wear it, I would wear it, it’s good but it’s also like if nobody else can, you can’t sell it. This can be a huge challenge for me because the starting point for me is could I wear it, would I wear it then after I finish the item and I show it to my close friends and ask them would you buy that and some of them say “I would find it difficult”. I think this is the biggest challenge for me to think for a thousand women.

So you don’t just have one kind of person in mind that you’re creating for?

I start for myself – would I wear it? Would I want to wear it? And then even with earrings that I was introducing last season – some girls would tell me “it won’t look good on me because of the length of my neck – it wouldn’t sit nice.” I am actually reducing the potential consumer interest by that. I should have introduced different sizes, lengths so that if people like it they could still be able to buy it. They are not buying it just because of the length of the item. I didn’t think of that until someone told me “I couldn’t wear that – it would look awful on me because of the length of my neck – it’s shorter than yours”. I think that’s the biggest challenge. Step out of Katya and think about being other women.

The biggest challenge is designing pieces you know other people would want to wear.

Yep or would be able to wear. Different figures.

For example, the birdcage skirt, I can only imagine on someone tall and skinny.

I actually completely disagree! One of my dream characters to wear the skirt is Kim Kardashian.

Katya wants to see Kim Kardashian wearing her birdcage skirt – proof that it is not just for the straight up and down figure.

Really?!

Yes. I think because it comes in different sizes, it’s just can you make it work for yourself. I think actually in Australia, women are so open-minded about how they dress in every shape. I adore it. I think it’s great. Everybody should wear everything.

But there are things that suit some people better than other people.

I think that the skirt is not a complicated item. There are some styles that make people look better or worse, but the birdcage skirt is not a complicated item depending on what you put underneath it. Because the length of the skirt is a very easy one. It all depends on how you style it, with what you style it. If you want to show your legs, you put something short underneath. If you want something long, it can be a very long dress and it just makes texture with the skirt on top of it.

What advice would you give to someone who is starting out?

I think it is important to understand you are not the only person who sees it. As soon as you start producing it and showing it around, and getting some feedback – the sooner you do it the better. You don’t want your item sitting around becoming a piece of art and be recognised as an artist after you die… You want fashion to be wearable, you want people to buy it. You won’t understand until you put it up on the market and see the interest.

But how do you put something into the market?

I think it’s now so easy with social media. Start with your own friends on Facebook, create an album to share and ask for feedback. There is this term I heard recently “happy ears” – when people say “it’s so cool, amazing, I love it” but nobody actually buys it. So when you actually get something sold, you understand. If you don’t have much money but you have this one item you strongly believe in, start with that, take some good quality pictures – maybe ask a friend or a photographer on how to take a picture with a mobile – good quality pictures help always and show it to your friends on Facebook and Instagram. Start showing it to people that you know and usually friends are very supportive and somebody might buy it from you.

Starting with your presence on social media and having the response from friends will probably validate your idea if it is good or not. Even if that doesn’t work, I personally wouldn’t give up. See which picture got the most likes and go with that further. Try to create a Facebook page, and ask people to like it. Go to some markets and see if people are touching it. There are more expensive or cheaper markets – think of where your potential consumer would be more likely to go and how much money they will spend. I think pricing is one of the most difficult questions how to price. And putting it very, very cheap, you know that people won’t pay more than $100 but then are you actually getting paid for that. Do you make the item valuable for people? It’s not always about how much money you’re spending producing but putting it into the right mind the price. I would probably ask for advice from friends. I was sending pictures to my friends and saying “how much would you pay for this?” “Would you even buy it?” “Would you look at it in the shop?” “Oh I wish it was in this other colour or had a different…” Testing the market is the first thing to do, then once the product is suitable for the market and you are happy with the actual product, go to market.

I have a PR friend who helps me write media releases. “Katya Komarova launches new handbag”. I include a few pictures and send to all South Australian magazines for example. A couple of them like Clique magazine, The Advertiser, GlamAdelaide would usually support and post it in their media. And that’s it. So I have the product showcased to a wide audience and they have access to my online shop, they can click. The product is out there, a lot of people can see it and I can see who is actually buying and who is not. That’s the advice. That’s where I would start – start with my friends and get to the point with my friends where they say “yes, I would buy it – in fact I am buying it!” I would invest time, not necessarily money, because you can get around with low expense on photography even with mobile – nicely produced pictures and include it in media releases – send it to local magazines and don’t think that people don’t care that you’re not well-known. It’s their job to find new stories. If it comes at the right time – ah we need something fresh, something new for a feature. They do care because they need to write about something.

You’re giving them a story.

Yeah, it just has to be a nicely written story.

And lastly, what is your fashion dream? Is it what we spoke about earlier – making handbags to order in front of the customer?

This concept has a lot of things that I care about. Producing a dream handbag for the end consumer, reducing the waste by not over-producing something that people don’t need, having a versatile life in the new wardrobe – a bag with a different strap becomes a totally new accessory. I think this concept brings together a lot of things that I care about, that I am passionate about and if I could make it work, yes it is my dream.